Why Fox Is Exploiting Nostalgia For 'X-Men' To Hype 'Dark Phoenix'

So, uh… happy XMenday, everyone! Yes, Fox is officially calling today a kind of “X-Men Day” in light of tickets going on sale for Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix. The fourth ensemble X-Men film featuring the First Class cast and (counting Deadpool and Deadpool 2) 12th movie in the franchise that began in 2000 with Bryan Singer’s X-Men. Save for the Mission: Impossible movies (six flicks between 1996 and 2018, with two more on the way by 2021), Fox’s X-Men saga remains the longest-running “never rebooted” franchise without any kind of long sabbatical currently in existence. But if Dark Phoenix (and The New Mutants, presuming that ever actually comes out) really is the end of the line before an MCU reboot of the property, then Fox is smart to emphasize franchise nostalgia.

That’s the pitch with this morning’s “The X-Men Legacy: featurette, which (no surprise) features folks from the old cast (Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart among others) waxing poetically alongside the new gang about the overall history and pop culture impact of the cinematic brand. Yes, X-Men really was a trendsetter in terms of blockbuster comic book superhero movies, helping to usher in a phase of present-tense, of-the-moment and politically topical superhero flicks based on characters and properties that today’s kids wanted to see onscreen. Sure, Blade and Spawn paved the way, but X-Men (and eventually Spider-Man) was the biggie. At the time, its $54 million debut was the fifth biggest opening weekend ever and the largest Fri-Sun debut ever for a non-sequel/prequel release. And it has been a fascinating journey.

Some X-Men movies (X2) are better than others (X-Men: Apocalypse), yet this singular comic book superhero property spawned two solo movie spin-off franchises (centered on Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool) and two somewhat disconnected continuities. You had the initial 2000-2006 trilogy (X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand) and the prequel continuity, specifically First Class, Days of Future Past (which used a time travel plot to combine both casts), Apocalypse and now Dark Phoenix. For all the talk about Hollywood chasing cinematic universes after The Avengers earned $1.5 billion seven summers ago, Fox had one way before it was “cool.” And now, barring a fluke, it’s about to end. Fox knows that selling a series finale hook is the best card they’ve got to get for Dark Phoenix.

That’s not a criticism. Marvel sold “it all ends here” not once, but twice for the last two Avengers movies. They sold Avengers: Infinity War as the proverbial Return of the King of the MCU and then (since that movie was actually half of a two-parter with a massive cliffhanger) sold Avengers: Endgame as the end of the line at least for Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Black Widow. Walt Disney sold, almost arbitrarily, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales as the final chapter in the Jack Sparrow saga, to the tune of $794 million worldwide. It didn’t quite work, save for boffo business in China, but Sony tried for a similar finale boost for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

Fox’s own X-Men saga played the card with Logan, hyping it up as the end of the line for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Cue a $619 million global cume (despite an R-rating and a lack of 3-D) on a $97 million budget. Everyone wants the boost that Warner Bros. got eight years ago for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II ($381 million domestic and $1.342 billion). Heck, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II earned the same over/under $295 million domestic gross as the previous Twilight sequels but earned $819 million worldwide. Avengers: Endgame is pushing past $2.5 billion worldwide partially on the strength of its series finale hook. They even did a featurette with a movie-by-movie rollcall, just as this featurette does (even if it oddly leaves out Deadpool).

If it worked for the MCU, Fox might as well try it with the X-Men. Because, coming off the heels of the mediocre X-Men: Apocalypse and lacking much consumer interest in this specific iteration of these characters (all due respect to James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender who are acting their asses off in these movies), and with the same “woman gets more powers and immediately becomes a world-imperiling killing machine” arc that barely played well in 2006 let alone 2019, Dark Phoenix as a stand-alone superhero movie isn’t exactly exciting the commoners. But as a “one last ride” installment of the 19-year-old X-Men saga, with all the cultural and generational baggage that entails, well, that’s something that might get folks into the theater just to ride this wave out.

Disney’s big marketing hook for The Rise of Skywalker is also that it’s the final chapter in the nine-episode Skywalker saga. You can bet that MGM, Annapurna, Universal and every other interested party will be playing the “final chapter of the Daniel Craig 007 saga” card as hard as possible when it comes time to sell James Bond 25. With tickets on sale today for the 114-minute Dark Phoenix, and official pre-release tracking set to drop on Thursday, it’s the final lap for the marketing campaign for what could be the final chapter in this specific X-Men saga. Reminding X-Men fans of the franchise’s storied history might convince some folks to see Dark Phoenix so that they can say that there were with this franchise until the end of the line.

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